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well now that Easts top 2 rivals are out, and they have yet to play ER this year, who ya got?

I think this is a bad matchup for Elk River. Just a hunch, but I feel East will win handily..I have no idea why Cloquet played such a soft game tonight in the neutral zone and gave up their blue line all night to ER, led to a lot of unnecessary defending they had to do in their own zone and it hurt them more than a few times......I think East will bring a lot of pressure and it will get to ER.

mnhockfan99 wrote:I think this is a bad matchup for Elk River. Just a hunch, but I feel East will win handily..I have no idea why Cloquet played such a soft game tonight in the neutral zone and gave up their blue line all night to ER, led to a lot of unnecessary defending they had to do in their own zone and it hurt them more than a few times......I think East will bring a lot of pressure and it will get to ER.

Agreed this will be a 3 line game for both teams, but i think with East being the better team will stop the ER offense... IMO this one is all on Franke

I like East on paper, but... Elk has alot going for them motivational wise. Resignation of their coach and Franke... this will be the fourth time he has played East in the playoffs and he is 0-3 with 0 close games to show for it. I think East will win but I would not be surprised to see Elk pull the upset as awful as it would be.

It all rides on Franke. Good goalies have kept teams in the game against East a few times already this year and I think Franke is as good as they get. Should be a fun one

Gotta go with the hounds to much depth for elks to shut down.

East in running time! Getting ready for GR!

mulefarm wrote:East in running time! Getting ready for GR!

mulefarm wrote:East in running time! Getting ready for GR!

Don't you mean getting ready for Andover or Forest Lake? GR lost lol.

Northhcky wrote:

mulefarm wrote:East in running time! Getting ready for GR!

Don't you mean getting ready for Andover or Forest Lake? GR lost lol.

I think he was poking fun at all of those who thought it was inevitable that East and GR/G would meet in the Section Final.

Oh, son! I think he's got a whopper! Get the net!!!

At least I won't have any trouble finding good seats for this game. Looking forward to seeing the Elks contingent. Of dozens.

Lee

Really, a 10am game for a section game! Is that the best 7AA can do? Why even bother tho rent the Amsoil, this is a complete joke!

the only joke is having the playoffs in duluth every year

You mean like having the state tournament in the cities every year?

slyer wrote:the only joke is having the playoffs in duluth every year

Yeah! And the state tournament in St. Paul every year too!

Im sure it's been said , possibly many times... But why didn't east/er play this year?

st.paul isn't exactly elk river

slyer wrote:the only joke is having the playoffs in duluth every year

The only joke is the southern teams who cry about the location every year but never back it up consistently.

Hmmm this " home ice " whining again?

Pretty sure east and hermantown had a few road games this year and their combined record is 49-1.

Good teams play good anywhere and don't whine about the location

Why don't they alternate locations? Why would the section director have semifinal games start at 10am? This has to hurt attendance. 7AA really not a northern section anymore. Maybe more northern teams should opt up to truly make it a northern section again.

Of the current 7AA teams these are the state appearances in the last 20 years:
Duluth East- 12
Andover-None
Grand Rapids-2
Elk River- 6
Cloquet- 4
Forest Lake- None
St. Michael-Albertville (WHAT?!)- None
Cambridge-Isanti-1
St. Francis- None

So lets see thats 3 Northern teams with 18 State Appearances, and 6 Southern teams with 7 Appearances, including 4 teams with NO appearances. So how about you either shut up or starting winning section finals. Looks like they are in the right spot to me!

DuluthMMA wrote:Im sure it's been said , possibly many times... But why didn't east/er play this year?

They were originally scheduled to play, and it was changed sometime over the summer. I believe they dropped it because the MSHSL forced Elk River to play a "cross-over game" (whatever that means) with Eden Prairie. They had to dump someone to fit that game in. Because of tournament commitments they had 2 choices: East and St. Francis. Not sure why they dumped East, maybe because it was easier for the Hounds to find another opponent.

It makes no sense to me either, but there you go.

Meanwhile, I'm glad to see we've come up with a creative, new discussion about the 7AA semifinal site...

EHSHack wrote:So how about you either shut up or starting winning section finals.

Maybe Elk River WOULD have won more if they had gotten to play at home all those years. Say what you want, but playing at home DOES give you an advantage!